Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 15:12
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
12 17. The Union of the Disciples with one another in Christ
12. This is my commandment ] Literally, This is the commandment that is Mine (see on Joh 14:17). In Joh 15:10 He said that to keep His commandments was the way to abide in His love. He now reminds them what His commandment is (see on Joh 13:34). It includes all others. A day or two before this Christ had been teaching that all the Law and the Prophets hang on the two great commands, ‘love God with all thy heart’ and ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Mat 22:37-40). S. John teaches us that the second really implies the first (1Jn 4:20).
That ye love one another ] Literally, in order that ye love one another: this is the purpose of the commandment. See next verse and on Joh 15:8, Joh 6:29, and Joh 17:3.
as I have loved ] Even as I loved; comp. Joh 15:9. Christ looks back from a point still further.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This is my commandment – The special law of Christianity, called hence the new commandment. See the notes at Joh 13:34.
As I have loved you – That is, with the same tender affection, willing to endure trials, to practice self-denials, and, if need be, to lay down your lives for each other, 1Jo 3:16.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 15:12-17
This is My commandment, that ye love one another
The great commandment of Christ
I.
THE LOVE OF CHRIST. Remember
1. How free it was. We did not merit it, ask for it, nor even desire it. And here is the wonder of it. It is love which found nothing to draw it forth. It was entirely self-moved. Disinterestedness then must be one main ingredient in the love we are to bear our fellow men. It is not to stop and ask, Why should I love that man? What has he done for me? That is a love like Christs, which rises up spontaneously. It does not wait to be bought or won.
2. How costly. Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor. Moved by His grace, He paid for our redemption the price that His law demanded. And what a price! Oh to find a man who will break through any thing but the law of God for his fellow man! That is the man, who embodies this precept of our Lord; a self-denying man, one who even in his love is willing to take up his cross and follow Christ.
3. How compassionate and tender! In looking at its greatness, we often lose sight of this. But the softness of a mothers love never equalled our Lords. Read His life. It is not here and there that His compassion comes out, it is everywhere. And this is the point in which the love of many real Christians is most deficient. Our neighbours want our hearts as well as our hands. There is ten-fold more sorrow in mens minds, than pain in mens bodies, or sickness and poverty in mens houses. Would you show it mercy? Then carry a feeling heart through it. This will do more for the worlds comfort than the richest purse.
4. How bountiful! No good thing will He withhold from us. Freely ye have received, freely give. The measure of what our love is to do for others and give to others, is simply this, the measure of our ability to give and do. That is Christs standard in His love; it must be our standard in ours.
5. How extensive! It is discriminating. It took almost as many forms as love could take. The love of country was strong in Him, and the love of kindred and the love of friends. But then look, at the same time, at its extent. Who was excluded from it? His enemies? No, with His last breath He prayed for the very men who murdered Him. Or the world? There is not a guilty being on the wide earth whom He does not pity, and load daily with benefits. His love is like the sun in the heavens–they who are the nearest to it are warmed, and gladdened by it the most, but they who are the farthest off from it behold its light. And this is the unfailing character of all true Christian love. Worldly love is narrow, and generally becomes more so as we grow older. This is expansive. No one object can absorb it; no one house or family can hold it; no sect or party can confine it.
II. THE CHARGE OUR LORD GIVES US TO IMITATE HIM IN HIS LOVE.
1. There is a commandment in the case. It is remarkable that our Lord, who seldom uses this word on other occasions, uses it again and again in reference to this love. Here, you observe, is authority pressing down on us. We are to be without this love at our peril. We little think what we are doing when we keep back the helping hand or the pitying heart from a suffering brother. We are setting up once more for our own masters.
2. It is Christs commandment. He stamps it with His own authority. Viewed in this light, there is an appeal in this charge to our gratitude and affection. When our Lord calls it a commandment, He says, Dread to dispise it; and when He calls it His commandment, He urges us by His mercies towards us to obey it. And there may be a reference here to a custom of the times. Each of the different sects among the Jews had some particular tenet or practice to distinguish it. Now I, says our Lord, fix on this as the mark and badge of My followers–mutual love. You shall be as well known by this love, as the priests of the Temple are by their garments, or the Roman soldiers by their standards.
3. It is His last and great commandment. Herein He shows us
(1) The amazing tenderness of His own love. His love for them triumphs over every other feeling and desire.
(2) The importance in itself of this mutual love. Our all-wise Lord would not have spoken thus emphatically of a trifle. St. Paul says that this love is the fulfilling of the law, and the end of the commandment. Just so our Lord speaks of it (Joh 15:17). (C. Bradley, M. A.)
Brotherly love
I. HAS THE HIGHEST MODEL. As I have loved you. How did Christ love?
1. Disinterestedly. There was not a taint of selfishness in His love. He looked for no compensation, no advantage.
2. Earnestly. It was an all-pervading, all-commanding passion. It was a zeal consuming Him.
3. Practically. It was not a love that slept as an emotion in the heart, that expended itself in words and professions; it was a love that worked all the faculties to the utmost, and led Him to the sacrifice of Himself. This is the kind of love we should have one toward another. This is the brotherly love that
(1) Unites Christs disciples together.
(2) Honours Christ.
(3) Blesses the world with the most beneficient influences.
II. FORMS THE HIGHEST FRIENDSHIP. Ye are My friends, etc.
1. It not only establishes a friendship, but a friendship between them and Christ. A true friendship between man and man is the greatest blessing on earth.
2. A friendship between man and Christ is the consummation of mans well being. If Christ is my friend what want I more?
III. HAS THE HIGHEST SOURCE. Ye have not chosen Me, etc. We did not choose to love Christ first, but He chose to love us. His love to us generates our love to Him. He chose His first disciples from their worldly avocations and called them into His circle; this inspired them with His love. Men will never love one another properly until Christ sheds abroad His love in their hearts. He is to all His disciples what the sun is to the planets; around Him they revolve and from Him derive their life and unity. They are united one to another by the bonds that unite them to Christ.
IV. REALISES THE HIGHEST GOOD.
1. Spiritual fruitfulness. Ordained you, appointed you, that ye bring forth fruit. The fruit involves two things
(1) The highest excellence of character.
(2) The highest usefulness of life. Rendering others the highest service.
2. Successful prayer. Whatsoever ye shall ask, etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Christians bound to love one another
I. THE DUTY.
1. Mutual love. There is a love which all men owe to all men. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: but the love which is the subject of our Lords precept, is obviously much more comprehensive in its elements, and much less extensive in its range, than this. It is the love of which none but a disciple can be either the object or the subject. Its component elements are esteem, complacency, benevolence, and its appropriate manifestations,–highly valuing each others Christian gifts and graces,–delighting in such association with each other as naturally calls forth into exercise all that is peculiarly Christian in the character,–defending each others Christian reputation when attacked,–sympathising with each others Christian joys and sorrows,–promoting each others personal Christian holiness and comfort.
and cordially cooperating with each other in enterprises calculated to promote the common Christian cause, the cause of Gods glory, and mans improve ment and happiness.
2. Love like that of our Lord. As I have loved you.
(1) Discriminative.
(2) Sincere.
(3) Spontaneous.
(4) Fervent and copious.
(5) Disinterested.
(6) Active.
(7) Self-sacrificing.
(8) Considerate and wise.
(9) Generously confiding and kindly forbearing.
(10) Constant.
(11) Enduring.
(12) Holy and spiritual.
(13) Universal.
II. THE MOTIVES.
1. The commandment of Christ. There is no duty which the apostles, more frequently, or more authoritively, enjoin. To enable us to form some estimate of the force of this motive we have only to propose and answer the question, Who is this who speaketh? This is a commandment which Christ claims as His own, in a peculiar sense; and it is addressed to a class who stand in a peculiar relation to Him.
2. The example of Christ. How did Christ love
(1) He was just about to give them the greatest proof of friendship which can be given. Greater love hath no man than this, etc.
(2) He had made them the objects of His peculiar complacent regard, as persons who were really desirous of doing whatever He commanded them. Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
(3) He had treated them as friends, by unfolding to them, so far as they were capable of apprehending it, the whole truth respecting the wonderful communication He had come from heaven to earth to make, and the wonderful work He had come from heaven to earth to perform–the economy of salvation. Henceforth I call you not servants, etc.
(4) He had selected them, and appointed them to a great, important, salutary work, their success in which was assured by all necessary assistance in it being secured in answer to believing prayer. Ye have not chosen Me, etc. (J. Brown, D. D.)
The Cross the means of perpetuating Christian love
The fire of charity is never extinguished, but will always be rekindled by the wood of the cross. (St. Ignatius.)
The oneness of the branches
The union between Christ and His disciples has been set forth in the parable of the vine. We now turn to the union between the disciples, which is the consequences of their common union to the Lord. There are four things suggested.
I. THE OBLIGATION.
1. The two ideas of commandment and love do not go well together. You cannot pump up love to order, and if you try you generally produce sentimental hypocrisy, hollow and unreal. Still we can do a great deal for the cultivation and strengthening of any emotion. We can cast ourselves into the attitude which is favourable or unfavourable to it. We can look at the subjects which will create it or at those which will cheek it.
2. This is an obligation
(1) Because He commands it. He puts Himself here in the position.
(2) Because such an attitude is the only fitting expression of the mutual relation of Christian men, through their common relation to the vine. However unlike any two Christian people are in character, culture, circumstances, the bond that knits those who have the same relations to Jesus Christ is far deeper, more real, and ought to be far closer, than the bond that knits them to the men or women to whom they are likest in all these other respects, and to whom they are unlike in this one central one. Let all secondary grounds of union and of separation be relegated to their proper subordinate place; and let us recognize this, that the children of one father are brethren. And do not let it be said, that brethren in the Church means a great deal less than brothers in the world.
II. THE SUFFICIENCY OF LOVE.
1. Our Lord has been speaking in a former verse about the keeping of His commandments. Now He gathers them all up into one: the all comprehensive simplification of duty–love.
2. If the heart be right all else will be right; and if there be a deficiency of love nothing will be right. You cannot help anybody except on condition of having an honest and benevolent regard towards him. You may pitch him benefits, and you will neither get nor deserve thanks for them; you may try to teach him, and your words will be hopeless and profitless. As we read Corinthians 13–the lyric praise of charity–all kinds of blessing and sweetness and gladness come out of this.
3. And Jesus Christ, leaving the little flock of His followers in the world, gave them no other instruction for their mutual relationship? He did not talk to them about institutions and organizations, about orders of the ministry and sacraments, or Church polity. His one commandment was Love one another, and that will make you wise. Love one another and you will shape yourselves into the right forms.
III. THE PATTERN OF LOVE. As I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, etc.
1. Christ sets Himself forward here, as He does in all aspects of human conduct and character, as being the realized ideal of them all. Reflect upon the strangeness of a man thus calmly saying to the whole world, I am the embodiment of all that love ought to be. The pattern that He proposes is more august than appears at first sight. A verse or two before our Lord had said, As the Father hath loved Me so I have loved you. Now He says, Love one another as I have loved you.
2. But then our Lord here sets forth the very central point of His work, even His death upon the cross for us, as being the pattern to which our poor affection ought to aspire, and after which it must tend to be conformed. That is to say, the heart of the love that He commands is self-sacrifice, reaching to death if death be needful. And no man loves as Christ would have Him love who does not bear in his heart affection which has so conquered selfishness that, if need be, he is ready to die. It is a solemn obligation, which many well make us tremble, that is laid on us in these words, As I have loved you. Calvary was less than twenty-four hours off, and He says to us, That is your pattern!
3. Remember, too, that the restriction which here seems to be cast around the flow of His love is not a restriction in reality, but rather a deepening of it. The friends for whom He dies are the same persons as the Apostle, in his sweet variation upon these words, has called by the opposite name when he says that He died for His enemies. There is an old wild ballad that tells of how a knight found, coiling round a tree in a dismal forest, a loathly dragon breathing out poison; and how, undeterred by its hideousness and foulness, he cast his arms round it and kissed it on the mouth. Three times he did it undisgusted, and at the third the shape changed into a fair lady, and he won his bride. Christ kisses with the kisses of His mouth His enemies, and makes them His friends because He loves them. If He had never died for His enemies, says one of the old fathers, He would never have possessed His friends. And so He teaches us, that the way by which we are to meet even alienation and hostility is by pouring upon it the treasures of an unselfish, self-sacrificing affection which will conquer at the last.
IV. THE MOTIVE. As I have loved you. The novelty of Christian morality lies here, that in its law there is a self-fulfilling force. We have not to look to one place for the knowledge of our duty, and somewhere else for the strength to do it, but both are given to us in the one thing, the gift of the dying Christ and His immortal love. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Love the means of unity
In the early spring, when the wheat is green and young, and scarcely appears above the ground, it springs in the lines in which it was sown, parted from one another and distinctly showing their separation, and the furrows. But, when the full corn in the ear waves on the autumn plain, all the lines and separations have disappeared, and there is one unbroken tract of sunny fruitfulness. And so when the life in Christ is low and feeble, His servants may be separated and drawn up in rigid lines of denominations, and churches, and sects; but as they grow the lines disappear. If to the churches of England today there came a sudden accession of knowledge of Christ, and of union with Him, the first thing that would go would be the wretched barriers that separate us from one another. For if we have the life of Christ in any mature measure in ourselves, we shall certainly bare grown up above the fences behind which we began to grow, and shall be able to reach out to all that love the Lord Jesus Christ, and feel with thankfulness that we are one in Him. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. That ye love one another] See Clarke on Joh 13:34. So deeply was thus commandment engraved on the heart of this evangelist that St. Jerome says, lib. iii. c. 6, Com. ad Galat., that in his extreme old age, when he used to be carried to the public assemblies of the believers, his constant saying was, Little children, love one another. His disciples, wearied at last with the constant repetition of the same words, asked him, Why he constantly said the same thing? “Because (said he) it is the commandment of the Lord, and the observation of it alone is sufficient.” Quia praeceptum Domini est, et, si solum fiat, sufficit.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This is that which our Lord called the new commandment. Joh 13:34; See Poole on “Joh 13:34“. He had before pressed the keeping of his words, continuing and abiding in his words, keeping his commandments, &c. Here he tells them what was his commandment: not his only commandment, but that which he laid a very great stress upon; a commandment most necessary to be pressed, because so necessary to keep up and uphold his church in the world, (love being the very ligament of that society), and because there was a greater failure in obedience to this than in some others, as may be learned from our Saviours correction of the Pharisees interpretation of that law, Mat 5:1-48. This he presseth to a higher degree, as he had loved them; not that it is possible that our love to our brethren can rise up in any proportion to that love wherewith Christ hath loved us; but to mind us to eye him, to press forward toward this mark.
As here again doth not signify equality, but a comparison; as truly and sincerely as I have loved you, and pressing after the highest degree of love.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12-16. That ye love one another,&c.(See on Joh 13:34, 35).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
This is my commandment, that ye love one another,…. Christ had been before speaking of his commandments; and he mentions this as the principal one, and to which all the rest may be reduced; for as the precepts of the second table of the moral law may be briefly comprehended in this one duty, love to our neighbour, so all the duties of Christianity, relative to one another, are reducible to this, by love to serve each other. This was the commandment which lay uppermost on Christ’s heart, and which he knew, if attended to, the rest could not fail of being observed. The argument by which, and the manner in which, he presses it, is as before:
as I have loved you; than which nothing can be more strong and forcible; see Joh 13:34.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
That ye love one another ( ). Non-final use of , introducing a subject clause in apposition with (commandment) and the present active subjunctive of , “that ye keep on loving one another.” See 13:34.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
My commandment [ ] . The commandment which is mine.
That ye love [] . Indicating not merely the nature of the commandment, but its purport.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “This is my commandment,” (aute estin he entois he eme) “This is (exists as) my commandment,” as my remaining or continuous commandment, and because it is mine, never so fully given before, Heb 13:1; “Let brotherly love continue,” progressively, or “let love roll on and on forever.”
2) “That ye love one another,” (hina agapate allelous) “in order that you all love (or affectionately care for) one another,” Joh 13:34-35; By this, they had been assured, (that through love) all men could know or recognize that they were His disciples, even if they could not read or write.
3) “As I have loved you,” (kathos egapesa humas) “Just as I have loved you all,” whom I have called, chosen, and affectionately cared for to the end, Joh 13:1. The disciples were to become life-transparencies through which Jesus Christ might be seen, Mat 5:15-16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
12. This is my commandment. Since it is proper that we regulate our life according to the commandment of Christ, it is necessary, first of all, that we should understand what it is that he wills or commands He now therefore repeats what he had formerly said, that it is his will, above all things, that believers should cherish mutual love among themselves. True, the love and reverence for God comes first in order, but as the true proof of it is love toward our neighbors, he dwells chiefly on this point. Besides, as he formerly held himself out for a pattern in maintaining the general doctrine, so he now holds himself out for a pattern in a particular instance; for he loved all his people, that they may love each other. Of the reason why he lays down no express rule, in this passage, about loving unbelievers, we have spoken under the former chapter.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
FRANK UNION OF FRIENDS
Text 15:12-17
12
This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.
13
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14
Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you.
15
No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known unto you.
16
Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17
These things I command you, that ye may love one another.
Queries
a.
May love be commanded (Joh. 15:12; Joh. 15:17)?
b.
When did Christ call the apostles, servants?
c.
How would their fruit abide (Joh. 15:16)?
Paraphrase
My one basic precept and commandment is that you continue to love one another in the same kind of love, having the same motive and purpose, with which I have loved you. The world over, men recognize as the supreme evidence of love that a man will voluntarily give up his own life for the sake of his friends. You are My friends if you are willing to let your love for one another rise to such self-sacrifice and thus keep My precepts. You have not been treated as bondslaves. The bondslave is not taken into his masters confidence but simply receives orders and carries them out without knowing the masters plans or purposes. But I have treated you as My friends, for all the plans and purposes which I heard from My Father I have revealed to you. Furthermore, this friendship is of My choosing and development. Our friendship is not on the basis of mutuality and reciprocity, but on the basis of My divine sovereignty and love. I chose you and appointed you as My friends that you may go and produce results from your labors that will remain forever, and that whatever you need from the Father to glorify His name in your labors and carry out His will you know He will give it to you. What I have said to you about My calling you by My divine sovereignty and not from any merit on the part of any of youand what I have said to you concerning taking you into My confidence as friendsand what I have said to you about My ultimate love for you has all been said in order that you may keep on loving one another as brothers in Me.
Summary
To prompt the disciples to love one another Jesus tells them: (a) He willingly sacrifices His life for them; (b) He takes them into His confidence as His bosom friends; (c) He does both of these by His own divine election.
Comment
May love be commanded? Can love be ordered into existence? We are sure that it cannot. As one writer has said, The two ideas of commandment and love do not go well together. You cannot pump up love to order, and if you try you generally produce . . . sentimental hypocrisy, hollow and unreal. Nevertheless, we are able to direct our attention to things or persons outside ourselves and we are able to do battle against self-absorption and self-love. This ability of directing the conscious thoughts and feelings away from self which is under our control may also be commanded. Therefore, if we will concentrate on and give our attention to Jesus and to others, love will be motivated. Hence we will be following His command to love one another even in the same way He loved. He counted the being on equality with God a thing not to be grasped, but emptied Himself and took the form of a servant and became obedient unto a self-sacrificing death (Php. 2:5-10). If we follow in His steps we shall be carrying out His commandment.
There is an air of completeness and all-sufficiency about this commandment (Joh. 15:12). It seems as if Jesus were saying, This is all that you, as a group, will need to carry out My appointment. They needed no rank or complicated organization amongst them to bear fruit for Him; they needed only to love one another with the same kind of love, having the same motive and purpose, as the love which Jesus gave to them. It is to be a brotherly love that is unfeigned and fervent (1Pe. 1:22; 1Pe. 3:8; 1Jn. 2:14-18; 1Jn. 4:7-11). This love of the brethren is the mark by which the world discerns those who are the disciples of Jesus (Joh. 13:34-35). It is still the one all-sufficient requisite for His disciples today. The church of the living Christ is more apt to bear abundant and abiding fruit today if its members love one another from the heart fervently, than it is through all the superstructure of world-wide ecclesiastical organization. Lack of brotherly love is the symptom of an even deeper evilhate for God (1Jn. 4:20-21), and how is a man to bear righteous fruit for the glory of God if he hates both God and his brother?
In Joh. 15:13 Jesus states a principle that is generally accepted among all men as the ultimate love. Man has no greater gift to offer, no greater sacrifice to make for another than his very life. It is the most here deeper than mere sacrifice of the physical life. What Jesus desires is laying down of self upon the altar of love. A man may even give his body to be burned and have not love (1Co. 13:3). One may even lay down his physical life from a self-glorifying, self-gratifying motive. The love of which Jesus speaks is a love which counts others better than self, which denies self even if the physical body remain alive.
Jesus takes another of the forms of mortal love, friendship (Joh. 15:14-15), and glorifies and exalts it by exercising it to the divine degree. Jesus glorified the estate of family love when He taught, He that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother and sister and mother (Mar. 3:31-35). He glorified the estate of husband-wife love when He inspired the apostle to write the great dissertation on Christ and the church (Eph. 5:22-32). But the important thing to notice here is the reciprocal nature of the friendship. First there is the divine condescension that Christ chooses to allow men to be His friends. Then there is the condition which men have to fulfill to come into this relationship of friendship-by-grace. We are His friends only on the condition that we do the things which He has commanded.
But what a friendship that is once the circle has been completed! There are no limitations in that friendship on His part. He sacrifices self (Joh. 15:12-13). And we are taken into close fellowship with Him, we are made to become confidants of His. Those who believe and trust Jesus and keep His commandments find that their relationship to Him grows into one of friendship rather than the drudgery of slavish and unintelligent oppression. The slave is given orders and is never taken into the confidence of his master as to the masters purposes and plans. But Jesus tells His friends everything He can concerning the plans and purposes of the Father. There is much that all of His friends cannot understand (Joh. 16:12), for His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways (Isa. 55:8-11). But what we can understand He frankly and plainly tells us. And even in those things which He withholds (things which we think we would be better for knowing) He does so out of love. A friend exercises reticence as well as frankness, when reticence is to the loved ones profit. But, of that which we most certainly need to know, He is very frank to say, If it were not so, I would have told you!
And in elevating those who believe in Him from slaves to friends He also took off them the chains of their bondage to ignorance, sin and fear. His yoke is easy and the burden light (Mat. 11:25-30), but the weight of ignorance, guilt of sin and fear of death before He took us as friends was unbearable (Mat. 23:4; Act. 15:10; Heb. 2:15).
Actually, the relationship of Master and slave is not broken when Jesus chooses us to be His friends. The slaves remain slaves of their own choice. They serve Him as freed men bringing themselves into slavery to Him of their own volition and love for Him (cf. Rom. 1:1; 2Pe. 1:1; Jud. 1:1).
Joh. 15:16 makes it very plain that our relation to Him as friends is dependent first and foremost upon His divine willingness and grace. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly . . . God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:6; Rom. 5:8). We were apprehended by Him (Php. 3:12). We were divinely elected, but that was made eons ago potentially in Christ (Eph. 1:3-14). Potentially all men are elected to be saved, but only In Christ. Man then must exercise his freedom to choose whether he desires this election or not by coming into Christ or remaining out of Him by obedience to His commandments (1Jn. 2:3-6; 1Jn. 2:27; 1Jn. 5:1-4, etc.). Even among these first disciples they were chosen by election but they themselves had to choose whether or not they wished that election. One (Judas Iscariot) refused the divine election. Even here they must go and bear fruit if they desire to make their calling and election sure (cf. 2Pe. 1:2-11). Yes, the Shepherd always seeks the lost sheep before the sheep seeks the Shepherd, but the sheep must hear and follow the voice of the Shepherd to realize the safety and bountifulness of the fold.
And so, the disciples were chosen and appointed (or commissioned) with special gifts of the Holy Spirit in order that they might go and bear fruit. They were to go and sow the precious seed of the Word and reap a harvest of souls. This harvest of souls and the establishment of the church of Christ on earth was to be an abiding monument to their faith in Christ. The church itself, upon its establishment, was to be henceforth eternal, made up of living stones. And so is the fruit of the labors of every evangelist and Bible teacher who has ever had any part in winning a soul to Christ or of strengthening a soul in Christ. They are laying up for themselves treasures in heaven which are eternal, they will receive an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away.
And now, in summation, all that He had said to them of their election by graceHis taking them into His confidence as friendsabout His own self-sacrificing loveall this has been said to provoke them Because what they ask will be in His name, in accordance with His will and desires for man. When we make our wishes and desires Christs, and Christs desires ours, we shall be satisfied.
Quiz
1.
How may we carry out the command to love one another?
2.
What must a man lay down to love ultimately?
3.
What is the condition on mans part in friendship with Christ?
4.
What are two differences between a slave and a friend according to the Scriptures?
5.
How are men elected by God? Is man involved in this divine election?
6.
May men today bear abiding fruit? How?
7.
How may we have whatsoever we ask in the Fathers name?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(12) This is my commandment.Comp. Note on Joh. 13:34. In Joh. 15:10 keeping of His commandments was laid down as the means of abiding in His love. He now reminds them that that which was specially the commandment to them was love to one another. Love to God is proved by love to mankind. The two great commandments of the law are really one. If a man love not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
The commandment of mutual love, based upon his example of love, Joh 15:12-17.
12. As I have loved you Very perfect indeed is that authority in the commandment of love which is based upon the example of him who commands. Christ is the only preacher of absolute perfection who fully exemplified, in his own instance, the perfection he preached. All true human preaching is above the practice of even the best preacher.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“This is what I command you (my commandment) that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do the things which I command you”.
It is extremely important to recognise that Jesus, having informed His disciples that they must dwell continually in Him, now stresses that they must love one another. The Christian life is two way. Firstly we concentrate on Christ and seek to dwell continually in Him. But this must not become such that we ignore our fellow Christians. That very dwelling in Him must result in outflowing love to other Christians. The lone Christian (except in unavoidable circumstances) is unknown in Scripture. We worship Him and fellowship together, for the one produces the other. We note too the importance that Jesus places on this love between Christians. He recognised how vital it was for the continuation of His message. Had the disciples ‘split up’ the cause would have been lost. ‘By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another’ (Joh 13:34). How we fail Him when we fight amongst ourselves! We will never see eye-to-eye on secondary things, but inter-denominational bickering is a blight on our testimony to Christ. We must agree to differ, in love.
It is significant that one of the primary commandments to the old Israel was ‘you shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Lev 19:18 compare Mat 22:39; Mar 12:31). This too is to be the mark of the new Israel. It is not primarily an emotional, gushing love (we do not always find people attractive), but a practical love (1Co 13:4-8), although the experience of the people of God is that as our love for Christ increases so does our love for our fellow believers, a love that has to be experienced to be understood.
It should be noted that this love is to be shown to all His people, not just to those in our own denomination. Where men genuinely love Christ and seek to do His will, there we find those whom we must love, even though we disagree with them on many matters. There is One Who judges and we can leave such judgments to Him.
‘As I have loved you.’ The tense is in the aorist denoting a complete action, something which is once for all. His love for them is permanent and complete. They can never doubt its potency.
But notice also that our love is to be seen in the light of His love, it is to be ‘as I have loved you’. Many times in history men have acted harshly in the name of love. Men can be ‘righteous overmuch’ and ‘the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God’ (Jas 1:20). But true love is never harsh, that is a contradiction in terms. Love is compassionate, as Jesus was to His own. It weeps as it chastens. Sometimes a gentle, even stern, rebuke is called for, but it is always to be merciful and eager to remedy matters immediately.
Jesus then goes on to stress the greatness of His love. It is a love which is willing to give its life for those who are loved, His ‘friends’. And this was what He knew He was about to do. Then He adds “You are my friends if you do what I command you”. He accepts them as friends because their hearts were set to obey His commands, and to please God in all their ways.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2). As the New Israel the Disciples Are To Love One Another ( Joh 15:12-17 ).
The fruit required of the branches of the vine is now clearly expressed. As branches of the true Vine they are to love one another, just as He Who is the vine has loved them. This is something that He had already emphasised in Joh 13:34-35.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 15:12. This is my commandment, “As I told you before, ch. Joh 13:34.the chief of all the commandments which I enjoin you, whether as apostles or private Christians, is, that ye love one another.I do not mean after the hypocritical manner of the world, who often love in word, and in tongue, while nothing is more remote from their heart;but in the sincere, tender, constant, manner of my love to you.” Our Lord was thus earnest in pressing them to mutual love, not only because the great design of his gospel is to promote mutual love, but because this grace, exercised by the apostles among themselves, and towards all mankind, was one great means of making their preaching successful; just as the immense love of Christ to men will always have a great influence in drawing them to him. “They who are sensible of the great importance of this precept (says Dr. Heylin,) will not think the repetition of it here tautology.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 15:12-13 . Now, for the purpose of furnishing a more exact guide to this joy, is given the precept of reciprocal love, founded on the love of Christ (Joh 13:34 ), which is the sum of the conception of the , Joh 15:10 , Jesus’ peculiar, specific precept ( ).
] you should (see on Joh 6:29 ).
Joh 15:13 characterizes the . . A greater love than this (just designated by . ) no one cherishes; it is the greatest love which any one can have, such as, according to the divine purpose, shall impel to this ( ), that (after my example) one (indefinite) should give up his soul for the advantage of his friends . For a like readiness to self-sacrifice the greatness of my love shall be the motive, 1Jn 3:16 . The ordinary interpretation, according to which is taken as expository of , does not correspond to the idea of purpose in , and the attempts to preserve this conception ( e.g . De Wette: in there lies a law, a will, comp. Luthardt, Lange; Godet: the culminating point of loving effort lies therein) are unsatisfactory and forced expedients. On . ., see on Joh 10:11 ; on , corresponding to the universal one ( man , Ger.), any one , see Ngelsbach, z. Ilias , p. 299, Exo 3 .
The difference between the present passage and Rom 5:6 ff. ( ) does not rest upon the thing itself, but only on the different point of view, which in Romans is general, and here is limited, according to the special connection, to the circle of friends, without excepting the friends from the general category of sinners. To designate them, however, by that quality, was not relevant in this place. Against the weakening of the idea of : “those who are actually objects of His love” (Ebrard), Joh 15:14 should have been a sufficient guard.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1695
LOVE TO THE BRETHREN
Joh 15:12. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
THE law and the Gospel are in perfect unison with each other: the law, as a covenant, sends us to the Gospel, that we may obtain mercy with God; and the Gospel sends us back again to the law, as a rule of life, that, by obeying its commands, we may honour and glorify our God. The loving our neighbour as ourselves was enjoined by the law, and indeed was a summary of all the duties of the second table [Note: Compare Lev 19:18. with Rom 13:8-10 and Gal 5:14.]. Our blessed Lord, enjoining the same duty from new considerations, calls it a new commandment, and emphatically his commandment; that so we may be led to examine it with stricter attention, and to regard it with deeper reverence: he says, in effect, Labour constantly to fulfil that old commandment of the law; and, that you may never want either a directory to guide, or a motive to animate you in your exertions, take my love to you as the reason and pattern of your love to each other.
To elucidate his words, we shall shew,
I.
How Christ has loved us
We must, of course, content ourselves with a few hints only of a subject, which has a height and depth, and length and breadth that can never be comprehended, never explored. Consider then the love of Christ to us:
1.
How free!
[Who ever did any thing to procure it? It exerted itself towards us long before we had any existence in the world. Who can do any thing now to merit it? We deserve to forfeit it every day and hour; but to earn an interest in it is beyond the power of man. We have nothing of our own but sin; and that would be a strange price to pay for the love of Christ. Indeed, if we deny the freeness of his grace, we rob him of the brightest jewel in his crown.]
2.
How tender!
[There is not one of his people, however weak and afflicted, whom he does not watch over with more than parental tenderness, carrying the lambs in his bosom, and gently leading them that are with young. Yes; we have not an High-priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: in all our afflictions He is afflicted: if we are stricken by the hand of persecution, He feels the blow [Note: Act 9:4.]: Whoso toucheth us, toucheth the apple of his eye. In every possible state he sympathizes with us, as a head with the members; and never fails to succour us with grace sufficient for us.]
3.
How abundant!
[If we regarded only the temporal blessings we receive at his hands, we must confess his love to us to be very abundant. But who can contemplate his unwearied intercessions at the right hand of his Father, or the incessant communications of his Spirit to their souls, and not stand amazed at the exceeding riches of his grace and love? And besides all this, he is preparing mansions for us in his Fathers house, and training us up daily, that we may be counted worthy to inhabit them for ever and ever. Well is his love represented as passing knowledge [Note: Eph 3:19.]!]
4.
How costly!
[Free as his love was to us, it was not exercised by him but at an expense that exceeds all calculation. Before it could operate for our advantage, he must leave his heavenly glory, assume our fallen nature, endure the scoffs and insults of his own creatures, and pour out his soul unto death as a sacrifice for sin. And would he pay this amazing price, in order to redeem our souls from death and hell? Yes, he undertook and executed the mighty work; and never drew back till he could say, It is finished.]
From contemplating this stupendous mystery, let us proceed to inquire,
II.
In what respects his love to us is a pattern for our love to each other
The love which the saints should hear to each other is of a sublime nature, very different from that which they owe to the world around them [Note: The two are carefully distinguished from each other. Gal 6:10. 1Pe 2:17.]. To resemble that of Christ to us, it should be,
1.
Disinterested
[Our love to the saints should not be confined to those of the same Church or party, nor should it have respect to any pleasure or advantage that we expect to derive from them; for this is only a refined species of self-love [Note: Mat 5:46-47.]: it should respect them only as children of our heavenly Father, as members of Christ our living Head, and as joint-heirs of the same eternal glory. It should be proportioned to their piety, rather than to any other endowments; and be occupied in advancing their happiness, not only as much as our own, but oftentimes in preference to our own. It was thus that the love of Christ operated towards us; and it is proposed for our imitation more especially in this point of view; Mind not every one his own things, but every one also the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus [Note: Php 2:4-5.].]
2.
Sympathizing
[We are all passing through a vale of tears, born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. Hence we need each others care and assistance through the whole of our lives. The kindness of friendship is a remedy which God has put within our reach, to enhance our joys and to alleviate our sorrows: we should therefore enter into the concerns of others, and feel them as our own; weeping with them that weep, and rejoicing with them that rejoice. By this we are told, we shall more especially comply with the injunction in the text; Bear ye one anothers burthens, says the Apostle, and so fulfil the law of Christ [Note: Gal 6:2.].]
3.
Beneficent
[Love must not interest merely the feelings of the mind: it must exert itself in acts correspondent to the occasions on which it is exercised. Is our neighbour distressed? we must relieve him. Is he ignorant? we must instruct him. Is he weak? we must strengthen him. Is he fallen? we must raise him up. Has he shewn some infirmities? we must bear with him. Has he offended us? we must forgive him. Are there any opportunities whatever of doing him good? we must gladly and speedily embrace them. It is in this way also that the Apostle urges us to imitate our Lord and Saviour: Put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye [Note: Col 3:12-13.].]
4.
Self-denying
[That love which will exert itself only in things that are easy and pleasing to oneself, is not worthy the name of love. A truly Christian affection will lead one to condescend to men of low estate; to visit the chambers of the sick; to enter into the dungeon of the prisoner; to cut off some of ones superfluities, in order to supply the necessities of others; to do good in return for evil; to expose oneself to the derision of a thoughtless world, in order to be instrumental in turning some of them from the evil of their ways; and to lay down, if need be, even our own lives for the brethren. This was the way in which St. Paul manifested his love [Note: Php 2:17-18.]; and in which we also, after the example of our Lord, are called to manifest ours [Note: 1Jn 3:16.].]
This being the way in which our love may resemble his, we shall shew you,
III.
The obligation we are under to follow that pattern
Our blessed Lord has enjoined a conformity to him in these respects,
1.
As an act of obedience to him
[He does not recommend such love as decorous and beneficial, but commands it as a duty which he will on no account dispense with. He stamps his own authority upon it; intimating thereby, that he will make it a subject of particular inquiry in the day of judgment. Indeed The decision at the last day is represented as turning principally upon this point; they who for his sake have abounded in offices of love being made exclusively the objects of his favour, while they who have neglected them are marked as objects of his indignation and abhorrence. If therefore we have any regard to his authority, or any dread of his everlasting displeasure, we must see the importance of following the example of his love.]
2.
As an evidence of our love to him
[Having in another place enforced this duty in terms similar to the text, he adds, that the exercise of brotherly love is the distinctive badge of our profession, the habit whereby all his followers must be known [Note: Joh 13:34-35.]. To the same effect his loving and beloved Disciple also speaks, declaring that our profession of love to God is mere hypocrisy without this [Note: 1Jn 4:20.]; and that without this we can have no assurance, no evidence, that we have passed from death unto life [Note: 1Jn 3:14; 1Jn 3:17; 1Jn 3:19.]. Shall we then at once write Hypocrite upon our foreheads? Shall we be contented to be ranked with murderers, who certainly have not eternal life abiding in them [Note: 1Jn 3:15.]? If not, we must see the necessity of imitating Christ, who has left us an example that we should follow his steps.]
Infer
1.
How little of true religion is there in the world!
[So far is love to the saints from being the common disposition of mankind, that almost all are rather filled with hatred against them: and where candour prevails over the enmity of the human heart so as to subdue its workings, there yet is a total want of that disinterested, sympathizing, beneficent, and self-denying love, which characterizes a true Christian ]
2.
What reason have even the saints themselves to be ashamed before God!
[Let the most zealous and active Christian compare his love with that of Christ; how poor and defective will his best efforts appear! Alas! alas! how often are things found among professing Christians that are not only defective, but directly contrary to love! Beloved brethren, let us study more carefully St. Pauls description of love [Note: 1 Corinthians 13.]: and above all, let us contemplate more the love of Christ to us: so shall we feel its constraining influence, and be stimulated to the exercise of this delightful duty.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Ver. 12. This is my commandment ] Love is the complement of the law and the supplement of the gospel.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
12 17. ] Union in love with one another enjoined on them .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
12. ] That He may shew them that it is no rigid code of keeping commandments in the legal sense, Joh 15:11 is inserted, and now the commandment (as including all others) is again explained (see ch. Joh 13:34 ) to be, mutual love , and that, after His example of Love to them.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 15:12 . And that they might know definitely what His commandment (Joh 15:10 ) is, He says, . “This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.” Perhaps they expected minute, detailed instructions such as they had received when first sent out (Mat 10 ). Instead of this, love was to be their sufficient guide. . His love was at once the source and the measure of theirs. In His love for them they were to find the spring of love to one another, and were to become transparencies through which His love would shine.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
John
THE ONENESS OF THE BRANCHES
Joh 15:12 – Joh 15:13
The union between Christ and His disciples has been tenderly set forth in the parable of the Vine and the branches. We now turn to the union between the disciples, which is the consequence of their common union to the Lord. The branches are parts of one whole, and necessarily bear a relation to each other. We may modify for our present purpose the analogous statement of the Apostle in reference to the Lord’s Supper, and as He says, ‘We being many, are one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread,’ so we may say-The branches, being many, are one Vine, for they are all partakers of that one Vine. Of this union amongst the branches, which results from their common inherence in the Vine, the natural expression and manifestation is the mutual love, which Christ here gives as the commandment, and commends to us all by His own solemn example.
There are four things suggested to me by the words of our text-the Obligation, the Sufficiency, the Pattern, and the Motive, of Christian love.
I. First, the Obligation of love.
Our Lord lays down the obligation which devolves upon all Christian people, of cherishing a kindly and loving regard to all others who find their place within the charmed circle of His Church. It is an obligation because He commands it. He puts Himself here in the position of the absolute Lawgiver, who has the right of entire and authoritative control over men’s affections and hearts. And it is further obligatory because such an attitude is the only fitting expression of the mutual relation of Christian men, through their common relation to the Vine. If there be the one life-sap circling through all parts of the mighty whole, how anomalous and how contradictory it is that these parts should not be harmoniously concordant among themselves! However unlike any two Christian people are to each other in character, in culture, in circumstances, the bond that knits those who have the same relations to Jesus Christ one to another is far deeper, far more real, and ought to be far closer, than the bond that knits either of them to the men or women to whom they are likest in all these other respects, and to whom they are unlike in this central one. Christian men! you are closer to every other Christian man, down in the depths of your being, however he may be differenced from you by things that are very hard to get over, than you are to the people that you like best, and love most, if they do not participate with you in this common love to Jesus Christ.
I dread talking mere sentiment about this matter, for there is perhaps no part of Christian duty which has been so vulgarised and pawed over by mere unctuous talk, as that of the fellowship that should subsist between all Christians. But I have one plain question to put,-Does anybody believe that the present condition of Christendom, and the relations to one another even of good Christian people in the various churches and communions of our own and of other lands, is the sort of thing that Jesus Christ meant, or is anything like a fair and adequate representation of the deep, essential unity that knits us all together?
We need far more to realise the fact that our emotions towards our brother Christians are not matters in which our own inclinations may have their way, but that there is a simple commandment given to us, and that we are bound to cherish love to every man who loves Jesus Christ. Never mind though he does not hold your theology; never mind though he be very ignorant and narrow as compared with you; never mind though your outlook on the world may be entirely unlike his. Never mind though you be a rich man and he a poor one, or you a poor one and he rich, which is just as hard to get over. Let all these secondary grounds of union and of separation be relegated to their proper subordinate place; and let us recognise this, that the children of one Father are brethren. And do not let it be possible that it shall be said, as so often has been said, and said truly, that ‘brethren’ in the Church means a great deal less than brothers in the world. Lift your eyes beyond the walls of the little sheepfold in which you live, and hearken to the bleating of the flocks away out yonder, and feel-’Other sheep He has which are not of this fold’; and recognise the solemn obligation of the commandment of love.
II. Note, secondly, the Sufficiency of love.
Where the heart is right the conduct will be right. Love will soften the tones, will instinctively teach what we ought to be and do; will take the bitterness out of opposition and diversity, will make even rebuke, when needful, only a form of expressing itself. If the heart be right all else will be right; and if there be a deficiency of love nothing will be right. You cannot help anybody except on condition of having an honest, beneficent, and benevolent regard towards him. You cannot do any man in the world any good unless there is a shoot of love in your heart towards him. You may pitch him benefits, and you will neither get nor deserve thanks for them; you may try to teach him, and your words will be hopeless and profitless. The one thing that is required to bind Christian men together is this common affection. That being there, everything will come. It is the germ out of which all is developed. As we read in that great chapter to the Corinthians-the lyric praise of Charity,-all kinds of blessing and sweetness and gladness come out of this, It is the central force which, being present, secures that all shall be right, which, being absent, ensures that all shall be wrong.
And is it not beautiful to see how Jesus Christ, leaving the little flock of His followers in the world, gave them no other instruction for their mutual relationship? He did not instruct them about institutions and organisations, about orders of the ministry and sacraments, or Church polity and the like. He knew that all these would come. His one commandment was, ‘Love one another,’ and that will make you wise. Love one another, and you will shape yourselves into the right forms. He knew that they needed no exhortations such as ecclesiastics would have put in the foreground. It was not worth while to talk to them about organisations and officers. These would come to them at the right time and in the right way. The ‘one thing needful’ was that they should be knit together as true participators of His life. Love was sufficient as their law and as their guide.
III. Note, further, the Pattern of love.
But passing that, the pattern that He proposes for us is even more august than appears at first sight. For, if you remember, a verse or two before our Lord had said, ‘As the Father hath loved Me so I have loved you.’ Now He says, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ There stand the three, as it were, the Father, the Son, the disciple. The Son in the midst receives and transmits the Father’s love to the disciple, and the disciple is to love his fellows, in some deep and august sense, as the Father loved the Son. The divinest thing in God, and that in which men can be like God, is love. In all our other attitudes to Him we rather correspond than copy. His fullness is met by our emptiness, His giving by our recipiency, His faithfulness by our faith, His command by our obedience, His light by our eye. But here it is not a case of correspondence only, but of similarity. My faith answers God’s gift to me, but my love is like God’s love. ‘Be ye, therefore, imitators of God as beloved children’; and having received that love into your hearts, ray it out, ‘and walk in love as God also hath loved us.’
But then our Lord here, in a very wonderful manner, sets forth the very central point of His work, even His death upon the Cross for us, as being the pattern to which our poor affection ought to aspire, and after which it must tend to be conformed. I need not remind you, I suppose, that our Lord here is not speaking of the propitiatory character of His death, nor of the issues which depend upon it, and upon it alone, viz., the redemption and salvation of the world. He is not speaking, either, of the peculiar and unique sense in which He lays down His life for us, His friends and brethren, as none other can do. He is speaking about it simply in its aspect of being a voluntary surrender, at the bidding of love, for the good of those whom He loved, and that, He tells us-that, and nothing else-is the true pattern and model towards which all our love is bound to tend and to aspire. That is to say, the heart of the love which He commands is self-sacrifice, reaching to death if death be needful. And no man loves as Christ would have him love who does not bear in his heart affection which has so conquered selfishness that, if need be, he is ready to die.
The expression of Christian life is not to be found in honeyed words, or the indolent indulgence in benevolent emotion, but in self-sacrifice, modelled after that of Christ’s sacrificial death, which is imitable by us.
Brethren, it is a solemn obligation, which may well make us tremble, that is laid on us in these words, ‘As I have loved you.’ Calvary was less than twenty-four hours off, and He says to us, ‘ That is your pattern!’ Contrast our love at its height with His-a drop to an ocean, a poor little flickering rushlight held up beside the sun. My love, at its best, has so far conquered my selfishness that now and then I am ready to suffer a little inconvenience, to sacrifice a little leisure, to give away a little money, to spend a little dribble of sympathy upon the people who are its objects. Christ’s love nailed Him to the Cross, and led Him down from the throne, and shut for a time the gates of the glory behind Him. And He says, ‘That is your pattern!’
Oh, let us bow down and confess how His word, which commands us, puts us to shame, when we think of how miserably we have obeyed.
Remember, too, that the restriction which here seems to be cast around the flow of His love is not a restriction in reality, but rather a deepening of it. He says, ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ But evidently He calls them so from His point of view, and as He sees them, not from their point of view, as they see Him-that is to say, He means by ‘friends’ not those who love Him, but those whom He loves. The ‘friends’ for whom He dies are the same persons as the Apostle, in his sweet variation upon the words of my text, has called by the opposite name, when He says that He died for His ‘enemies.’
There is an old, wild ballad that tells of how a knight found, coiling round a tree in a dismal forest, a loathly dragon breathing out poison; and how, undeterred by its hideousness and foulness, he cast his arms round it and kissed it on the mouth. Three times he did it undisgusted, and at the third the shape changed into a fair lady, and he won his bride. Christ ‘kisses with the kisses of His mouth’ His enemies, and makes them His friends because He loves them. ‘If He had never died for His enemies’ says one of the old fathers, ‘He would never have possessed His friends.’ And so He teaches us here in what seems to be a restriction of the purpose of His death and the sweep of His love, that the way by which we are to meet even alienation and hostility is by pouring upon it the treasures of an unselfish, self-sacrificing affection which will conquer at the last.
Christ’s death is the pattern for our lives as well as the hope of our hearts.
IV. Lastly, we have here by implication, though not by direct statement, the Motive of the love.
That love, received into our hearts, will conquer, and it alone will conquer, our selfishness. That love, received into our hearts, will mould, and it alone will mould, them into its own likeness. That love, received into our hearts, will knit, and it alone will knit, all those who participate in it into a common bond, sweet, deep, sacred, and all-victorious.
And so, brethren, if we would know the blessedness and the sweetness of victory over these miserable, selfish hearts of ours, and to walk in the liberty of love, we can only get it by keeping close to Jesus Christ. In any circle, the nearer the points of the circumference are to the centre, the closer they will necessarily be to one another. As we draw nearer, each for himself, to our Centre, we shall feel that we have approximated to all those who stand round the same centre, and draw from it the same life. In the early spring, when the wheat is green and young, and scarcely appears above the ground, it comes up in the lines in which it was sown, parted from one another and distinctly showing their separation and the furrows. But when the full corn in the ear waves on the autumn plain, all the lines and separations have disappeared, and there is one unbroken tract of sunny fruitfulness. And so when the life in Christ is low and feeble, His servants may be separated and drawn up in rigid lines of denominations, and churches, and sects; but as they grow the lines disappear. If to the churches of England to-day there came a sudden accession of knowledge of Christ, and of union with Him, the first thing that would go would be the wretched barriers that separate us from one another. For if we have the life of Christ in any adequate measure in ourselves, we shall certainly have grown up above the fences behind which we began to grow, and shall be able to reach out to all that love the Lord Jesus Christ, and feel with thankfulness that we are one in Him.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh 15:12-17
12″This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17This I command you, that you love one another.”
Joh 15:12 “This is My commandment” Jesus repeated this theme often (cf. Joh 13:34; Joh 15:17; 1Jn 3:11; 1Jn 3:23; 1Jn 4:7-8; 1Jn 4:11-12; 1Jn 4:19-21; 2Jn 1:5).
“that you love one another” This is a present active imperative, a continual command. Love is the fruit of the Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22). Love is not a feeling, but an action. It is defined in practical terms (cf. Gal 5:22-23; 1 Corinthians 13).
“just as I have loved you” This is an aorist active indicative. This was possibly a figurative reference to the cross (cf. Joh 15:13). Again, it was Jesus’ special type of self-giving love that believers are to exhibit (cf. 2Co 5:14-15; Gal 2:20; 1Jn 3:16).
Joh 15:13 “that one lay down his life for his friends” This refers to Jesus’ vicarious, substitutionary atonement (cf. Joh 10:11; Joh 10:15; Joh 10:17-18; Mar 10:45; Rom 5:7-8; 2Co 5:21; Isaiah 53). This is love in action! This is what disciples are called on to do (cf. 1Jn 3:16).
Joh 15:14 “You are my friends” This is the Greek noun philos, which is often associated with friendship love (phile). In Koine Greek “agapa ” and “phile ” are often synonymous verbs for divine love (compare Joh 11:3 [phile] and 5 [agapa]); phile also is used of God’s love in Joh 5:20.
“if you do what I command you” This is a third class conditional sentence which means potential action. It gives the condition for friendship, which is obedience (cf. Joh 14:15; Joh 14:23-24; Joh 15:10; Luk 6:46). As Jesus abided in the Father and remained in His love, so too, must His disciples!
Joh 15:15 Jesus informs the disciples of (1) truths about God and (2) future events. He demonstrates His power so that the disciples will grow in faith and trust. Jesus shared with His disciples what He had heard from the Father (cf. Joh 3:32; Joh 8:26; Joh 8:40; Joh 12:49; Joh 15:15); they were to pass this on to others (cf. Mat 28:20).
Joh 15:16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” There are several key grammatical items.
1. both verbs are aorist middle indicative – Jesus, Himself, once and for all chose them (cf. Joh 6:70; Joh 13:18; Joh 15:16; Joh 15:19)
2. the strong “alla” (but) adversative
3. the emphatic “ego” or “I” statement
Here is the balance between human response and election. Both are biblical teachings. God always initiates (cf. Joh 6:44; Joh 6:65; Joh 15:16; Joh 15:19), but humans must respond (cf. Joh 1:12; Joh 3:16; Joh 15:4; Joh 15:7; Joh 15:9). God’s dealings with mankind are always in a covenant relationship (“if. . .then”). See Special Topic at Joh 3:16.
The verb “chosen” in this context refers to the Twelve. The term “chosen” has the connotation of “chosen for service” in the OT and only in the NT does the added concept of “chosen for salvation” come into the semantic range. NT believers are chosen for Christlikeness which is service, selflessness, and sacrifice for the Kingdom of God, the body of Christ, the corporate good. It is a clear demonstration that the self-centeredness of the Fall has been broken.
It is characteristic in John that what Jesus says regarding the Twelve has implications and applications to all believers. They represent the first fruits of discipleship, but their relationship is
1. unique in its eyewitness testimony (i.e., inspiration)
2. applicable to all believers in that Jesus’ will for them is His will for all who believe and follow
“appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain” These are three present active subjunctives: (1) go; (2) bear fruit; and (3) fruit remains (abides). Believers are on a mission (cf. Mat 28:19-20; Luk 24:46-47; Act 1:8). The theological aspect of the term “appointed” can be seen in Act 20:28; 1Co 12:28; 2Ti 1:11. It was also used of Christ’s death on believers’ behalf (cf. Joh 10:11; Joh 10:15; Joh 10:17-18; Joh 15:13).
“in My name” Believers are to reproduce Jesus’ character. This phrase is synonymous with “the will of God” in 1Jn 5:14. Love and answered prayer are linked here as in Joh 14:13-15. See Special Topic: The Name of the Lord at Joh 14:13-14.
Joh 15:17 “This I command you , that you love one another” See note on Joh 15:12. Answered prayer is linked to love and mission!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
My commandment. My charge to you. As the Father’s charge to Me (Joh 15:10) so My charge to you. Compare Joh 13:34.
as = even as. have
loved = loved, as in Joh 15:9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
12-17.] Union in love with one another enjoined on them.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 15:12. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
O beloved, do keep this commandment! Overlook each others infirmities. Bear with each others faults. Love one another as Christ has loved us.
Joh 15:13-15. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
I have explained myself to you in such a way that I have proved that you are my friends. A master sets his servant to work without explaining what his object is in that work, but I have explained to you what my Fathers design is. Therefore, you are my friends.
Joh 15:16-21. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my names sake, because they know not him that sent me.
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my names sake, because they know not him that sent me. We cannot expect, therefore, to receive honour, and to wear a crown of gold where Jesus wore a crown of thorns.
Joh 15:22-24. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If 1 had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin:
They would have been comparatively free from sin.
Joh 15:24-26. But now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
Notice that blessed truth,that even that Divine Person, the Holy Ghost, when he comes to visit us, has nothing better to speak of than our Lord Jesus Christ: He shall testify of me. Even the Holy Spirit, when he exercises the function of the Comforter, testifies of Christ. Is he not the consolation of Israel? Well did the poet write
Thou dear Redeemer, dying Lamb,
We love to hear of thee;
No musics like thy charming name,
Nor half so sweet can be.
Joh 15:27. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Joh 15:12. , commandment) Previously, in this and the preceding chapter, He said in the Plural commandments. They all are comprised in the one, love.–) even as I have loved you: this clause is handled, Joh 15:13-16. The inference of the former clause from this, viz. that ye love one another, is deduced in Joh 15:17.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 15:12
Joh 15:12
This is my commandment, that ye love one another,-Jesus had so loved them that he gave up heaven for a time, took upon himself the nature and sufferings of the world, and the death of the cross for them. [Not my only commandment, but my great commandment. He had said to the lawyer in regard to the Mosaic law that its very essence was to love God and love your neighbor.]
even as I have loved you.-While they would not equal him in the strength of his love, they must cultivate the same love one for another, and be willing to deny self and suffer one for another. [Not only as certainly as I have loved you, but as intensely as I have loved you.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Joh 13:34, Rom 12:10, Eph 5:2, 1Th 3:12, 1Th 4:9, 2Th 1:3, 1Pe 1:22, 1Pe 3:8, 1Pe 4:8, 1Jo 2:7-10, 1Jo 3:11-18, 1Jo 3:23, 1Jo 4:21
Reciprocal: Joh 14:5 – we know not Joh 15:17 – General Gal 6:2 – the law Col 3:14 – charity 1Jo 2:8 – a new 1Jo 3:14 – because 1Jo 3:16 – and we 1Jo 4:11 – General 2Jo 1:5 – that we
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2
This is virtually the same as verse 11.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
[That ye love one another.] “Every sabbath they added that blessing towards that course of priests who, having performed their service the last week, were gone off. Let him who dwells in this house plant among you brotherhood, love, peace, and friendship.”
Our Saviour once and again repeats that command, “Love one another”: he calls it ‘a new commandment,’ Joh 13:34; for their traditions had in a great measure put that command of loving one another out of date; and that particularly by very impious vows they would be making. We have a little hint of it, Mat 15:5; and more in the treatise Nedarim. See also Mat 5:43; “Thou shalt hate thine enemy”: this rule obtained in the Jewish schools. And upon that precept, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” let us see the mighty charitable Gloss in Chetubb. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” that is, decree him to an easy death; namely, when he is adjudged by the Sanhedrim to die.
When you consider the frequent repetition of this precept, “Love one another,” consider also that passage, Mat 10:34; “I came not to send peace, but a sword”: and then having reflected on those horrid seditions and mutual slaughters, wherewith the Jewish nation, raging with itself in most bloody discords and intestine broils, was, even by itself, wasted and overwhelmed, you will more clearly see the necessity and reasonableness of this command of loving one another; as also the great truth of that expression, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Three weighty points demand our attention in this passage. On each of these the language of our Lord Jesus Christ is full of striking instruction.
We should observe first, how our Lord speaks of the grace of brotherly love.
He returns to it a second time, though He has already spoken of it in the former part of His discourse. He would have us know that we can never think too highly of love, attach too much weight to it, labor too much to practice it. Truths which our Master thinks it needful to enforce on us by repetition, must needs be of first-class importance.
He commands us to love one another. “This is my commandment.” It is a positive duty laid on our consciences to practice this grace. We have no more right to neglect it than any of the ten precepts given on Mount Sinai.
He supplies the highest standard of love: “Love one another as I have loved you.” No lower measure must content us. The weakest, the lowest, the most ignorant, the most defective disciple, is not to be despised. All are to be loved with an active, self-denying, self-sacrificing love. He that cannot do this, or will not try to do it, is disobeying the command of his Master.
A precept like this should stir up in us great searchings of heart. It condemns the selfish, ill-natured, jealous, ill-tempered spirit of many professing Christians, with a sweeping condemnation. Sound views of doctrine, and knowledge of controversy, will avail us nothing at last, if we have known nothing of love. Without charity we may pass muster very well as Churchmen. But without charity we are no better, says Paul, than “sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.” (1Co 13:1.) Where there is no Christlike love, there is no grace, no work of the Spirit, and no reality in our religion. Blessed are they that do not forget Christ’s commandment! They are those who shall have right to the tree of life, and enter the celestial city. The unloving Christian is unfit for heaven.
We should observe, secondly, how our Lord speaks of the relation between Himself and true believers. He says, “Henceforth I call you not servants . . . . but I have called you friends.”
This is indeed a glorious privilege. To know Christ, serve Christ, follow Christ, obey Christ, work in Christ’s vineyard, fight Christ’s battles, all this is no small matter. But for sinful men and women like ourselves to be called “friends of Christ,” is something that our weak minds can hardly grasp and take in. The King of kings and Lord of lords not only pities and saves all them that believe in Him, but actually calls them His “friends.” We need not wonder, in the face of such language as this, that Paul should say, the “love of Christ passeth knowledge.” (Eph 3:19.)
Let the expression before us encourage Christians to deal familiarly with Christ in prayer. Why should we be afraid to pour out all our hearts, and unbosom all our secrets, in speaking to one who calls us His “friends”? Let it cheer us in all the troubles and sorrows of life, and increase our confidence in our Lord. “He that hath friends,” says Solomon, “will show himself friendly.” (Pro 18:24.) Certainly our great Master in heaven will never forsake His “friends.” Poor and unworthy as we are, He will not cast us off, but will stand by us and keep us to the end. David never forgot Jonathan, and the Son of David will never forget His people. None so rich, so strong, so independent, so well off, so thoroughly provided for, as the man of whom Christ says, “This is my friend”!
We should observe, lastly, how our Lord speaks of the doctrine of election. He says, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, . . . . that ye should go and bring forth fruit.” The choosing here mentioned is evidently twofold. It includes not only the election to the Apostolic office, which was peculiar to the eleven, but the election to eternal life, which is the privilege of all believers. To this last “choosing,” as it specially concerns ourselves, we may profitably direct our attention.
Election to eternal life, is a truth of Scripture which we must receive humbly, and believe implicitly. Why the Lord Jesus calls some and does not call others, quickens whom He will, and leaves others alone in their sins, these are deep things which we cannot explain. Let it suffice us to know that it is a fact. God must begin the work of grace in a man’s heart, or else a man will never be saved. Christ must first choose us and call us by His Spirit, or else we shall never choose Christ. Beyond doubt, if not saved, we shall have none to blame but ourselves. But if saved, we shall certainly trace up the beginning of our salvation, to the choosing grace of Christ. Our song to all eternity will be that which fell from the lips of Jonah: “Salvation is of the LORD.” (Jon 2:9.)
Election is always to sanctification. Those whom Christ chooses out of mankind, He chooses not only that they may be saved, but that they may bear fruit, and fruit that can be seen. All other election beside this is a mere vain delusion, and a miserable invention of man. It was the faith and hope and love of the Thessalonians, which made Paul say, “I know your election of God.” (1Th 1:4.) Where there is no visible fruit of sanctification, we may be sure there is no election.
Armed with such principles as these, we have no cause to be afraid of the doctrine of election. Like any other truth of the Gospel, it is liable to be abused and perverted. But to a pious mind, as the seventeenth Article of the Church of England truly says, it is a doctrine “full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort.”
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Notes-
v12.-[This…commandment…love…loved you.] In this verse our Lord returns to the old lesson which He has taught before: the great duty of love towards other Christians. He backs the command by His own example. Nothing less than His matchless love towards sinners should be the measure and standard of love to one another.
The frequent repetition of this command teaches the vast importance of Christian charity, and the great rarity of it. How any one can pretend to Christian hope who is ignorant of Christian love, it is hard to understand. He that supposes he is right in the sight of God, because his doctrinal views are correct, while he is unloving in his temper, and sharp, cross, snappish, and ill-natured in the use of his tongue, exhibits wretched ignorance of the first principles of Christ’s Gospel. The crossness, spitefulness, jealousy, maliciousness, and general disagreableness of many high professors of “sound doctrine,” are a positive scandal to Christianity. Where there is little love there can be little grace.
v13.-[Greater love…for his friends.] In this verse our Lord teaches what should be the measure and degree of the love which Christians should have to one another. It should be a self-sacrificing love, even to death, as His was. He proved the greatness of His love by dying for His friends, and even for His enemies. (Rom 5:6-8.) It would be impossible for love to go further. There is no greater love than willingness to lay down life for those we love. Christ did this, and Christians should be willing to do the same.
Let us note here that our Lord clearly speaks of His own death as a sacrificial and propitiatory death. Even His friends need a substitute to die for them.
v14.-[Ye are my friends…command you.] This verse seems closely connected with the preceding one. “You are the friends for whom I lay down my life, if you do whatever things I command you.” We are not to dream that we are Christ’s friends, if we do not habitually practice His commands. Very striking is it to observe how frequently our Lord returns to this great principle, that obedience is the great test of vital Christianity, and doing the real mark of saving faith. Men who talk of being “the Lord’s people,” while they live in sin and neglect Christ’s plain commands, are in the broad way that leads to destruction.
v15.-[Henceforth I call you not servants, etc.] Having used the word “friends,” our Lord tells His disciples that He has used that word purposely to cheer and encourage them. “Observe that I call you friends. I do so intentionally. I no longer call you servants; because the servant from his position knows not all his master’s mind, and is not in his confidence. But to you I have revealed all the truths which my Father sent me to teach the world, and have kept nothing back. I may therefore justly call you friends.”
When our Lord speaks of “having made known all things” to the disciples, we must reasonably suppose that He means all things needful to their spiritual good, and all things that they were able to bear.
The high privilege of a believer is strikingly taught here. He is a friend of Christ, as well as a child of God. No one need ever say I have no “friend” to turn to, so long as Christ is in heaven. Once only before this place does Christ call the disciples “friends.” (Luk 12:4.)
It is noteworthy that Abraham is the only person in the Old Testament who is called “the friend of God” (Isa 41:8), and of him the Lord says, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” (Gen 18:17.)
v16.-[Ye have not chosen Me, etc., etc.] The connecting link between this verse and the passage preceding it is not very clear.
Hengstenberg thinks that it refers to the commandment just laid down, to love one another. “I may fairly lay down laws and rules for your conduct, because I first chose and called you to be members of my Church.”
I much prefer thinking that our Lord’s object is to exalt the privilege of discipleship in the eyes of the eleven. “Remember, when I call you friends, that I called you into the number of my people, and chose you before you chose Me. See then how great and free and deep is my love to you.”
When our Lord speaks of “choosing” in this verse, I think that He means two things: viz., His choice of the eleven to be His apostles, and their eternal election to salvation. There seems to be a peculiar fullness in the phrase. The choice of the believer to eternal life is not the whole idea that our Lord means to convey. True as that glorious doctrine is, it is not the whole doctrine of this verse. The “choosing” includes a choosing for an office, like Joh 6:70, and seems to have a special reference to the choice of the eleven faithful apostles to be the first children of Christ’s Church.
Calvin certainly says, “The subject now in hand is not the ordinary election of believers, by which they are adopted to be God’s children; but that special election by which Christ sets apart His disciples to the office of preaching the Gospel.” (See Joh 6:70.) This also is the view of Chrysostom and Cyril.-But most of the Latin fathers apply the “choice” to eternal election. So also does Lampe. My own impression is, that, for once, the expression includes both official and eternal election.
The Greek word rendered “ordained” means simply, “I have placed you” in a certain position as my apostles.
When our Lord says, “I have chosen and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit,” I think He refers to the work of conversion and of building a Church in the world. “I chose and set you apart for this great purpose, that ye should go into all the world preaching the Gospel, and gathering in the harvest and fruit of saved souls; and that this work begun by you might remain and continue long after your deaths.” And then to encourage the eleven, He adds, “It was part of my plan that so bringing forth fruit, ye should obtain by prayer everything that ye need for your work”
It is vain to deny that the verse is a very difficult one both as to its connection and contents. As a general rule I hold strongly that the things spoken by our Lord in this last discourse decidedly belong to all believers in every age, and not to the eleven only. Yet there are perhaps exceptions, and this verse may be one.-The expression “Go and bring forth fruit” certainly seems to apply peculiarly to the eleven, who were to “GO” into all the world and preach the Gospel. It is as though our Lord said, “Take comfort in the thought that I chose you as my friends for this great purpose, to go and preach, to reap an abundant harvest of souls, to do lasting work, and to obtain a constant supply of grace and help, by prayer.”-I cannot see how the word “go” can apply to any but the eleven to whom the Lord was speaking; and this weighs heavily with me in interpreting it.-“That your fruit should remain,” again, is a phrase that I cannot apply to anything but the lasting and abiding work which the Apostles did when they went through the world preaching the Gospel. But I freely admit that I find in the verse “things hard to be understood.”
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Joh 15:12. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, even as I loved you. The sum of what was to be said in this part of the discourse has been spoken. One point needs further elucidationlove. It is here enjoined and explained anew. The singular commandment does not differ materially from the plural of Joh 15:10 (see on that verse, and comp. on chap. Joh 14:23-24). Jesus had loved them with a self-sacrificing love; and because He had so loved them He charges them to live in self-sacrificing love for one another. The I loved you is not to be resolved into I have loved you. As at chap. Joh 13:34, it is of His love brought back to their minds in His absence that He speaks.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our Lord had often in this farewell sermon of his to his dear disciples, pressed upon them the duty of loving one another, chap. 13 and 14. And yet here he inforces it from his own example: As I have loved you, so love you one another; that is, as truly and as sincerely for the manner, though not in the same proportion and degree.
Learn hence, That for the disciples of Christ to love one another upon such grounds, and in such a way as he loved them, is that which his heart greatly desires, and is very much set upon.
2. That Christ’s love unto believers is both an obligation unto mutual love, and also a pattern and example for it. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 15:12. This is my commandment This I especially enjoin you, whether as apostles or private Christians; that ye love one another Cordially and constantly; even, if it be possible, with as great fervency and constancy, as I have loved you So as to be ready to sacrifice your lives for each other, as I expose and give up mine for you. It is remarkable, that no one duty is more frequently inculcated, or more pathetically urged upon his disciples, by our Lord, than that of mutual love. This is my commandment, he says, as if it were the most necessary of all the commandments. The reason might be, 1st, That as under the law, the prohibition of idolatry was the commandment more insisted on than any other, because God foresaw the people would be prone to that sin; so Christ, foreseeing that the Christian Church would be addicted to uncharitable contentions and divisions, strife and animosity, thought proper to lay the greatest stress upon this precept. 2d, Mutual love among Christians is a duty which both includes many other duties, and has a good influence upon all: and to this duty, Christs love to us all should at once direct, animate, and urge us; he having thereby both shown us our duty in this respect, and laid us under the most powerful obligations to perform it. Add to this, that our Lord was thus earnest in pressing his disciples to the duty of mutual love, not only because it was the great design of his gospel to promote it, but because this virtue exercised by his apostles and first disciples among themselves, and toward all mankind, would be one great means of making their preaching successful; just as Christs immense love to men will always have a great influence in drawing them to him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.
Vv. 12-17.
1. The statement of Joh 15:13 is, of course, to be interpreted in view of the subject which is occupying the thought of Jesus. The love of enemies is not under contemplation.
2. The proof which Jesus gives, that He regards them as friends (Joh 15:15), is that He has made known to them all things which He has heard from God. This is not to be understood as inconsistent with what is said in Joh 16:12, but only as declaring that He had treated them with all openness and friendliness, concealing nothing for the purpose of concealment.
3. The word of Joh 15:16, from its connection with , seems to refer to the choice of the eleven as friends. In the relation of the thought to the bearing of fruit, the idea of the apostleship is no doubt before the mind, and not improbably the turn to this idea is to be found in the verb .
4. The second clause of Joh 15:16 is to be understood, with Meyer, Weiss, Godet and others, as co-ordinate with the first. This co-ordination, and the placing of the second clause where it is, serve to show, once more, how completely the thought of answers to prayer is limited, in these chapters, to the matters of spiritual life and fruit-bearing.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Jesus summarized His teaching with the command to love one another as He had loved them (cf. Joh 13:34-35; 1Jn 3:16). This was especially relevant because of the disciples’ earlier arguments about who of them was the greatest and their unwillingness to wash each other’s feet.